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The Atlas Obscura Podcast

The Capitol Stones

The Atlas Obscura Podcast

SiriusXM Podcasts & Atlas Obscura

Society & Culture, Places & Travel

4.61.6K Ratings

🗓️ 7 March 2022

⏱️ 11 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Gigantic pieces of the United States Capitol rest in Rock Creek Park in Washington, DC - waiting for anyone willing to step off the beaten path. READ MORE IN THE ATLAS: https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/the-capitol-stones-washington-dc

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0

Rock Creek Park in Washington DC has all the usual city park things, biking, golf,

0:06.4

tennis courts.

0:08.2

But if you wander just a little bit off the path, you'll find something unexpected, something

0:13.4

we can say for sure that no other city park has, stones, gigantic, gigantic stones.

0:24.4

They are in 20 foot stacks piled up behind a maintenance shed.

0:29.1

And some of the stones are simple sandstone, some are marble, some have ornate cornices

0:34.0

and decorations, some are just big plain old slabs.

0:38.2

And they look like the ancient ruins of some lost city, which in a way is kind of what

0:43.4

they are.

0:44.4

Because they aren't just any stones, they're pieces of the capital building.

0:48.9

Yes, the United States capital building in Washington DC.

0:55.6

I'm Dylan Thuras, and this is Alice Obscura, a celebration of the world's strange, incredible

1:00.8

and wondrous places.

1:02.4

Today, a trip deep into the woods, to find out how pieces of one of the country's most

1:08.9

famous buildings wound up here.

1:12.4

That's after this.

1:23.5

If you have ever done a home renovation, you know it can be a hell on earth.

1:29.3

Your whole house is covered in dust, there is a constant loud banging sound in the background,

1:35.6

and there are so many, many moments when you ask yourself, what have I done?

1:42.8

And imagine, as often it feels like, that this renovation just never, ever ends.

1:51.3

The capital came about the 1790s, and it was never finished.

1:55.8

It's been continually under construction, repair and expansion for the last 200 years in

...

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